The present invention pertains to heating and cooling systems, particularly those for controlling the temperature of fluids, components or items within an enclosure.
Some enclosures contain components or items which are to be heated or cooled. These enclosures may include cabinets housing computers or other electronic devices, vending machines containing food or beverages, coolers, warmers, and other applications. In some first application types, a fluid medium in the enclosure, such as air or water, may first be cooled or warmed, with convective heat transfer secondarily occurring between the item or component and the medium. Additionally, these applications may relate to providing a product which involves temperature-treating a fluid, such as an ice machine. Examples of this application type are very well known, and include, in addition to ice machines, refrigerators, immersion baths, vending machines, and other applications.
In other, second application types, the item or component may be directly cooled or heated via conductive contact with a heatsink or a source of heat. As an example of this application type, it is sometimes necessary to provide cooling to microprocessors or breadboards within a computer cabinet beyond what can be accomplished via forced air convection. Typically, such cooling is performed by placing the component in conductive communication with the heat transfer surface of a cold plate, which serves as a heatsink.
Cold plates are well-known heat exchangers, are readily commercially available, and are usually constructed of a metal, such as an aluminum or copper alloy, having good conductive properties. Cold plates are typically metal machinings, castings or weldments providing a heat transfer surface, and which are provided with conduits located beneath the heat transfer surface and formed of series of passages or baffles, or a tubular coil through which a working fluid is flowed. The working fluid is introduced into the interior of the cold plate through an inlet, and directed through the conduit to a cold plate outlet. Heat is transferred conductively to or from the heat transfer surface to the conduit, and convectively between the conduit and the working fluid. The heat transfer surface may be small or quite large, depending on the needs of the particular application, such as, for example, the number of components to be conductively cooled.
Thus, in cooling, heat is transferred from what is being cooled to the plate's heat transfer surface, then conductively to the conduit wall, and then convectively to a cooling working fluid. The warmed fluid then exits the cold plate through the outlet and is expelled to ambient, or is cooled before being recirculated through the cold plate. Similarly, in heating, heat is transferred from a warming working fluid convectively to the conduit, then conductively to the heat transfer surface, and then to what is being warmed. Liberated of the transferred heat, the cooled working fluid exits the plate through its outlet and is dumped to ambient, or is reheated before recirculation through the cold plate. Herein, the term “cold plate” is used for this type of heat exchanger regardless of the direction of heat transfer between the working fluid and the heat transfer surface.
Cold plates may also be used for heating or cooling in applications of the above-mentioned first type, wherein heat is transferred between the cold plate's heat transfer surface and the convective fluid medium, which in turn heats or cools items or components surrounded by the medium. In such applications, air or water, for example, may be placed in convective contact with the exterior of the cold plate's heat transfer surface or another convective heat exchange arrangement, such as a plurality of fins, placed in conductive contact with the cold plate's heat transfer surface.
The applications for cooling or heating with cold plates vary greatly, and the manufacturers of the component or enclosure to be heated or cooled often lack the expertise, facilities or willingness to design, assemble or otherwise provide cooling or heating componentry, much less systems including same. Therefore, these manufacturers typically look to vendors for supplying the necessary components or heating/cooling systems or subsystems. Normally, the cold plate is provided as a component separately from other heating or cooling components, and the manufacturers or their customers undertake assembly of the heating/cooling system or subsystem.
Regardless of the application, a complete, modular system by which heating or cooling of an enclosure, or items or components therein, may be easily provided is greatly desirable. Such a system would simplify design and assembly for the above-mentioned manufacturers and/or their customers, and improve the reliability of the system, for no fluid joints to or from the heating/cooling system, or any other assembly of the system itself, need be made thereby.
Further, it would be desirable to provide a common heating/cooling system by which either heating or cooling can be performed with the same module. Such a module would reduce complexity and inventory, and their attendant costs, and simplify assembly and repair procedures.
Further still, despite any such standardization of such modules, it would be desirable in some instances to conveniently increase the heating or cooling capacity of an enclosure utilizing such modular systems.
Moreover, a means for quickly replacing a heating or cooling system without special tools, disconnecting and connecting fluid joints, or undertaking working fluid charge procedures, in the event of system failure or as part of routine maintenance, would also be desirable.